In the wake of Trump’s anti-LGBTQIA executive orders, the project starts a series of peaceful protests
BY YASMIN VINCE, IMAGE BY PAUL HARFLEET
If you’re ever near the US Embassy, have a look for a single pansy planted as a symbolic and peaceful protest against the actions of the Trump administration.
Paul Harfleet has been visiting sites of homophobic and transphobic incidents, assaults and hate crimes and planting pansies there since 2005. This simple yet poignant act aims to illuminate the often unreported realities faced by the LGBTQIA community.
The US Embassy is the latest location in The Pansy Project and the first in a series of 20 plantings across the year, marking the project’s 20th anniversary. Paul and the project will be running a social media campaign inviting the public to nominate planting sites.
The project began in Manchester when Paul and his boyfriend were verbally abused by passengers from a passing vehicle. Believing in the restorative power of gardening, he planted a single pansy there. “I felt that planting a small unmarked living plant at the site would correspond with the nature of the abuse,” Paul said. “A plant continues to grow as I do through my experience.”
Since 2005, he has planted more than 300 pansies. The US Embassy has been chosen as the most recent site due to the anti-LGBTQIA executive orders the new president has introduced. The final planting of the year will happen on 15 October, the 20th anniversary of the murder of Jody Dobrowski, in Clapham Common.
“Decades after I planted the first pansy in 2005, I am still gently fighting ignorance,” said Paul. “It is still unbelievably depressing that there is a need to do it.” Paul has spoken to hundreds of people over the years about the project, what unites us as a community and transforming a location of violence into a place of protest and beauty.
If you know a location that would be right for a planting, you can contact The Pansy Project here.
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